Raymond Stoklosa, CRS, ABR

#1 Under-Estimating the Importance of LOCATION.

"Location, location, location" is arguably the most often repeated adage in real estate, and with good reason. Location, and its importance is the most venerable principle in real estate. Location is, without qualification, the most important influence on value.

Location is the key to: (1) How well you will enjoy living in the property, and (2) How well it sells when that time come. Never ignore the power of location. An inferior location will restrict the property's appreciation and hinder your ability to sell the property. A superior location will enhance your life style and boost the property's appreciation potential.

Recommendation: Buy the very best location you can comfortably and confidently afford.

This is an excerpt from Raymond Stoklosa's HOME BUYING TUESDAY (http://homebuyingtuesdays.com) class - the longest continuously running home buying class in San Mateo County (CA). This class is designed - and regularly updated to reflect market conditions - to present tips, insights and practical advice for both trade-up and first-time home buyers. It is sponsored by Community College Education Programs, City Adult Education and Recreation Departments, Senior Citizen and Consumer Service organizations.

Yesterday, we were excited to learn Relocation.com named LivingWellinSanMateo.com as one of the best real estate agent blogs in the San Francisco Bay Area!

Relocation.com is the largest online marketplace connecting consumers who are moving to professionals that can best service their needs. They sought out to find hyper local blogs that provided information about local neighborhoods, market data and blogs that focussed on current real estate issues affecting their community.

What Did Relocation.com Have to Say About LivingWellinSanMateo?

"Living Well in San Mateo from Raymond Stoklosa, Rebecca Williamson, and Chris Williamson does a nice job breaking down the local neighborhoods in San Mateo (like Hallmark), as well as some real estate basics stuff for novice homebuyers or just homebuyers who could need some brushups about current real estate issues, including this post on questions to ask when buying a short sale." -- Relocation.com

Thanks, Relocation.com! We're thrilled to make the list.

Moving to Chicago, Los Angeles or Minneapolis/St. Paul? Check out Relocation.com's top blogs lists for these great cities!

As the San Mateo County (CA) rebounds a very interesting phenomenon has surfaced. Buyers who at the outset of their home search had an apparently generous selection of homes to choose from are now finding very few new listings coming on the market. Several home buyers have expressed disappointment at the short supply of new listings meeting their acquisition criteria. Once they rejected the homes in the inventory pool, the only new homes to consider are the new listings. As newly initiated sales (pending sales) exceed the number of new listings, the choices become fewer and fewer.

The inventory of homes is a fluid process. Believing that there is a new listing priced lower, in better condition and located in a more desirable neighborhood can lead to missed opportunity. In a resurgent market, the best home may be the one you passd on.

REO's are the hot niche in most markets. Often a bank-owned home can represent a genuine value. Since the bank is making a business decision based on loss mitigation, the emtional elements typically associated with a conventional sale by a home owner are absent. Having said that Buyer's Agents should be aware of and counsel their clients about the potentially draconian REO Addendum. This document which can be 2 - 12 pages in length usually is presented after the buyer's offer has been submitted is effectively a counter offer because it modifies, amends and supersedes the applicable provisions in the buyer's offer.

There are provisions in the addendum are risky for the buyer, such as, changing the contingency removal process from active to passive or imposing severe monetary penalties for failure to close in a timely manner. Other provisons may impose difficult or impossible contingency removal time frames or changing the close of escrow date.

Some, not all, addendums include what the lawyers refer to as a CC 1542 waiver in which the buyer waives any and all future claims and demands against the bank for both known and unknown defects and liability. This insulates the bank from virtually every form of liability to the buyer. Addendums typically include a back out provision that allows the bank to rescind the contract prior to close of escrow.

Best advice for Buyer's Agents, ask the listing agant for a copy of the addendum before writing the offer and review it. Because agents cannot render legal opinions, the buyer's agent may recommend that an attorney review and interpret some or all of the provisions of the addendum.

Here is where a buyer's agent earns his or her fee, guidance and professional advice are the cornerstones of the adage "Protect Thy Client."

I read an interesting comment by Jay Papasan, co-author of the book "Your First Home," who said "People can get a lot of what they need and almost all of what they want today" in their first purchase. I thought to myself that statement was clearly true of the San Mateo (CA) home re-sale market 6 months ago, but based upon recent spike in the number of multiple offers and overbids for homes listed for sale, the bottom of the market is a historical data point on the trend line. With the number of newly initiated single family home sales, also known as pending sales by the industry, exceeding the number of new listings for the past 2 months, the early indication of a market turn-about is clear.

Certainly in towns, such as, San Carlos, Belmont, Redwood City and San Mateo, California we had more well priced, highly desirable homes on the market 6 months ago than we do today. Oh yes, many homes are still well priced but the number of well priced, well maintained homes in superior locations and well performing school districts is declining. There is only one winner in a multiple offer scenario, the losers usually move on to buy another home. Funny how that works.

When you factor in author David Bach's that "the average homeowner is worth 35 times more than the average renter," isn't it about time to get off the side lines? No one can predict the low point in the market cycle until it passes. Waiting to buy may mean you'll get less home for more money as the months roll by.

We stand by our prediction that there will be many people in 2013 who lament that they didn't buy a home in 2009. We heard people in 1978 say they should have bought in 1974...we heard people in 1988 say they should have bought in 1982...we heard people say in 1999 say they should have bought in 1994...Oh well, you heard it before.

The United States, not withstanding all of our problems, is poised to grow and create wealth. We have more to unite us than divide us, and people are driven to have better, richer, fuller lives than their parents. Owning a home remains the number one financial goal of the general public.